Stephen Kenny admits Republic of Ireland ‘needed to win’ against Greece
Stephen Kenny refused to discuss his future (Liam McBurney/PA)
Beleaguered Republic of Ireland boss Stephen Kenny declined to discuss his future after a deeply damaging 2-0 home defeat by Greece finally ended hopes of automatic qualification for Euro 2024.
Ireland were decidedly second-best at the Aviva Stadium and will head for Gibraltar on Monday evening having taken just three points from their first six qualifiers.
However, asked about his tenure, Kenny said: “I’m not going to use this to speak about that.
“Ultimately of course we’re disappointed. We knew it was a group of death, tough games.
“France, Holland, really tough. We had epic games against both of them.
“You shouldn’t be losing at home to Greece. They are a good team, better than people think they are, technically very good with good qualities.
“We needed to win tonight, I know that.”
Kenny had gone into the game under pressure, but with the Football Association of Ireland having indicated he would remain in charge until the end of the campaign whatever happened.
Asked this week if the results in these two fixtures could change the association’s stance, chief executive Jonathan Hill said: “No, I don’t think so.
Ireland were second best to Greece at the Aviva Stadium (Liam McBurney/PA)
“We’re committed to that process of reviewing the whole of the qualification process in November.”
Whether that is still the case after a dark night at the Aviva Stadium remains to be seen.
The brutal truth is that Kenny’s 27 competitive matches at the helm have yielded just five victories – against Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Scotland, Armenia and Gibraltar – with only a 3-0 Nations League success against the Scots in June 2022 backing the manager’s claims of progress.
He had
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